He was one of those terrific Fall River basketball players who did not play for Durfee. Billy McMillan was a Bishop Stang guy, one of the best players in school history.

Longtime Durfee basketball players and followers occasionally play the what-if game, speculating on how much better certain Durfee teams may have been if certain Spindle City hoops standouts, like McMillan, had stayed home, so to speak. It is a high form of praise.

Such speculation resurfaced recently when it was learned locally that McMillan, the second 1,000 career point scorer in Stang history, had died unexpectedly in Los Angeles on June 25. He was 57.

He had lived the last 30-plus years on the West Coast.

Retired Durfee High School teacher Bill Mullaly remembers McMillan well, especially from those locally famous Monday, Wednesday, and Friday pickup basketball games at the Thomas Chew Memorial Boys Club. Those games featured Fall River’s serious basketball players, mostly current and past players from Durfee, but not limited to the Red and Black fraternity.

McMillan joined the frays and routinely showed he belonged. “Everybody liked him and he could really play,” said Mullaly, back then a young Durfee teacher and a regular at the Boys Club. “He was strong, very strong. He was a wiry strong kid.

“He was a tenacious athlete. He played hard all the time. He didn’t care if he scored a point. He just wanted to win. And he was a pain in the neck to have guard you.”

“He was an outstanding player,” said Durfee Hall of Famer Tom Gastall, Class of 1973 and childhood friend of McMillan. “He was a tough guy, 6-3, and he could do everything.”

Gastall doesn’t hesitate to pinpoint the year he believes McMillan, whom he played youth basketball with, could have put Durfee over the top. It would be Gastall’s senior year, the 1972-73 season. Forced to play an independent schedule that season, the Hilltoppers split a pair of games with eventual state champion Holy Name of Worcester.

“I would say we would have won the state championship,” Gastall said.

Of course, McMillan didn’t opt for Durfee, and that was no shock to Gastall. In the 1970s, Stang athletics boasted many fine athletes from Fall River. There’s zero indication McMillan regretted his school choice.

At Stang, McMillan was technically a guard, but with his size, strength, and agility, he could function in any role needed. He entered his final high school game – at the gymnasium which now bears the name of his beloved coach John O’Brien – eight points shy of 1,000 for his career. He scored 27 that night against Fairhaven to finish with 1,019.

Page 2 of 2 - He thus joined Kevin Phelan (also a Fall River guy) as Stang’s only two 1,000-point scorers.

McMillan followed with a fine basketball career at Stonehill College.

McMillan was and remained close to his high school coach. Gastall said he was told by John O’Brien’s son, Michael O’Brien, that after Coach O’Brien died in 1985, McMillan’s returns this area would always include a visit to Coach O’Brien’s wife, Jean.

Growing up on South Beach Street in Fall River, McMillan was known for more than his intelligence, friendliness, and basketball talent. He was able to go full speed for so long on the court because he was unusually dedicated to cardiovascular fitness. “You’d see him all the time running. Running around South (Kennedy) Park, running to the basketball games,” Mullaly said. “And he was a very bright kid, too. So smart. He was beyond his years.”

Gastall said McMillan was a “fitness fanatic” and recalled one day when they drove to Buttonwood Park in New Bedford and played basketball for hours. Back in Fall River, McMillan insisted Gastall drive to Diman Regional High School’s track so he could run a series of wind sprints.

Also memorable were 1-on-1 games of basketball with McMillan. “They were full court,” Gastall said.

A memorial service has been scheduled for Aug. 10 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Stonehill College's Pettit Atrium of the Thomas and Mary Shields Science Center. All of McMillan's family and friends are invited to attend and speak, sharing their memories.